Ardgay railway station
Ardgay railway station is a railway station serving the village of Ardgay and its neighbour Bonar Bridge in the Highland council area of Scotland. The station is on the Far North Line, 57 miles 70 chains (93.1 km) from Inverness, near Bonar Bridge, and has a passing loop 32 chains (640 m) long, flanked by two platforms. Platform 1 on the up (southbound) line can accommodate trains having ten coaches, but platform 2 on the down (northbound) line can only hold five.[3]
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| Location | Ardgay, Highland Scotland |
| Coordinates | 57.8816°N 4.3622°W |
| Grid reference | NH600904 |
| Managed by | Abellio ScotRail |
| Platforms | 2 |
| Other information | |
| Station code | ARD |
| History | |
| Original company | Inverness and Ross-shire Railway / Sutherland Railway |
| Pre-grouping | Highland Railway |
| Post-grouping | LMSR |
| Key dates | |
| 1 October 1864 | Opened as Bonar Bridge |
| 2 May 1977 | Renamed as Ardgay |
| Passengers | |
| 2015/16 |  6,732 |
| 2016/17 |  7,144 |
| 2017/18 | 7,140 |
| 2018/19 | 6,998 |
| 2019/20 | 6,408 |
Listed Building – Category C(S) | |
| Designated | 14 September 1988 |
| Reference no. | LB7164[2] |
| Notes | |
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road | |
History
Opened on 1 October 1864 as Bonar Bridge by the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway and designed by Joseph Mitchell,[4][2] it became the meeting point of the Sutherland Railway and the Inverness and Ross-shire Railway. The station joined the Highland Railway, later becoming part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923; it then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. It was renamed Ardgay on 2 May 1977.
When sectorisation was introduced by British Rail in the 1980s, the station was served by ScotRail until the privatisation of British Rail.
Today Ardgay is the termination point for some commuter services from Inverness. The southbound platform is twice the length of the northbound platform.
Services
Timetable changes in December 2008 increased the number of trains through Ardgay. On Mondays to Saturdays, there are seven trains a day southbound to Inverness and five a day northbound, four of which continue on to Wick (the other terminates here). On Sundays, there is one train in each direction.[5]
| Preceding station | National Rail |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tain | Abellio ScotRail Far North Line |
Culrain or Lairg | ||
| Historical railways | ||||
| Mid Fearn Halt Line open; Station closed |
Highland Railway Inverness and Ross-shire RailwaySutherland Railway  |
Culrain Line and Station open | ||
References
- Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
- "ARDGAY RAILWAY STATION AND FOOTBRIDGE". Historic Scotland. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
- Brailsford 2017, map 20A.
- "Inverness and Aberdeen Junction". London Evening Standard. England. 6 October 1864. Retrieved 20 July 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Table 239 National Rail timetable, May 2016
Sources
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ardgay railway station. |
- Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.
- Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
- Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
- "Station on navigable O.S. map".
- "RAILSCOT on Sutherland Railway".
- "RAILSCOT on Inverness and Ross-shire Railway".